The Complete Social Media Spring Cleaning Checklist

Today is the first day of spring! Hooray! I’m very excited about the longer days and warmer weather just around the corner.

But, with the arrival of spring, it means it’s also time to do some serious cleanup work. (And no, I’m not just talking about your office).

If it’s been awhile since you’ve reviewed or updated your social media profiles, now is the perfect time to do that. After all, you want to make sure you’re putting your best foot forward with your social media efforts.

Not sure where to start?

Buckle up. I’ve got a complete checklist ready for you to make your social media spring cleaning a snap.

Here we go!

Twitter checklist

• Get rid of spam. Now is the perfect time to clean up the list of people you follow. You can get rid of spam and quit following accounts that are no longer interesting or valuable to you. ManageFlitter can help you quickly unfollow inactive accounts, those without profile images, not following you back, etc.
• Find new voices and new people to follow. If Twitter is getting a little stale for you, why don’t you find some new people to follow? You can use Twitter search to find people by keywords, search bios using Followerwonk or find users by topic on WeFollow. Twitter also gives you some suggestions here.
• Refresh your lists. Twitter lists are a great way to pay closer attention to certain people or accounts. However, cleaning up your lists or changing them out every so often will help you engage with a new audience.
• Update your bio. When is the last time you updated your bio on Twitter? Now is a great time to make sure the info is up-to-date and that it best represents you and your personal brand.
• Update your avatar. How long has it been since you changed your avatar? If you’ve been using the same image for a few years, you might want to consider a refresh. I don’t advocate changing this all of the time, but if the photo no longer looks like you, it’s time to update it.
• Add/update a header image. Twitter now gives you the ability to add a cover image to further showcase your brand and what makes you different. Here are some examples to check out. Here’s a tutorial on how to set up the image and here are several gorgeous free photos from Geoff Livingston that you can use.

 Facebook Checklist

• Update your “About” section. Take a moment to review your about “blurb” and “About” page. Is your address, phone and URL still correct? Do you have any new information to add? Double check to make sure it’s all up-to-date.

• Add info to your timeline. With Facebook’s timeline set up, you can provide a history of your company by showing key milestones. Now might be a good time to fill in that information if you haven’t already.

• Take advantage of buttons & apps.
   Apps are a great way to extend the functionality of your page. They can be used for email sign-ups, blog subscriptions, contests and much more. If you’re not taking advantage of this, here are several ideas on how you can use apps on your Facebook page.

• Add/update cover image. Every time you update your cover image, it appears on your timeline and gives you a new opportunity to share a great image (and message) with your community. If you’ve never tested out a different cover image, give it a try. And, if you need some inspiration, here are some excellent Facebook page designs to check out.

• Manage permissions. If multiple people manage your Facebook page, take a look and double check permissions. Make sure that no one has admin access that shouldn’t.

Google Plus Checklist

• Update cover image. Google Plus just rolled out a new, larger cover images. Now is the perfect time to make sure yours looks great with the new set up. Here’s a great guide to setting it up — complete with dimensions, examples and best practices.
   

• Connect with new people. Because Google Plus is a little less noisy, it’s a great place to discover content and find new voices. Joining a Google+ community is a great place to start. Or, you can also follow these excellent tips for expanding your network.

• Set up Google Authorship. Your Google Plus profile is the key to Google Authorship — the functionality that allows your photo to show up in search results. Google Authorship is incredibly important for bloggers, as this helps you stand out in search results. If you use WordPress for your blog or website, here’s a handy guide to help you get it set up.

LinkedIn Checklist

• Update your avatar. Like the other social networks, your avatar is super important. But, on this network, make sure you keep the photo professional. And, if the photo doesn’t look like you anymore, it’s time for an update. Just make sure you avoid these profile pictures gone wrong.
• Add experience. Have you changed jobs? Do you have new skills or expertise to add? Make sure your profile has the latest and greatest information about you.

• Solicit recommendations. Recommendations offer incredible validation for you and the work you do. Even if you already have some recommendations on your profile, think about whom you can ask (clients, colleagues, employers, etc.) and reach out to them.

• Connect with new people. I make it a practice to connect on LinkedIn after meeting someone new. But, if you don’t do that, look in your address book or go through your stack of business cards and spend some time connecting with people on this network.

Blog Subscription Checklist

• Clean up your subscriptions. Is your feed reader is overly bloated, go through your subscriptions and unsubscribe from those you no longer read or from feeds that haven’t been updated in several months.
• Find a new feed reader.
   Speaking of feed readers, Google recently announced that it’s shutting down Google Reader in a few months. If you’re a Google Reader user, now is a good time to find an alternative. Here are some options you can consider.

• Find new blogs to read. Once you’ve cleaned out your blog, you might want subscribe to some new blogs you’ve discovered during your spring-cleaning efforts. Or, here are some additional tools to help you discover new content.

Although this entire list seems daunting, it’s not so bad if you break up your social media spring cleaning into little chunks. For instance, you can choose one social network to focus on each week and pick one quick task a day.

However you choose to go about it, going through this checklist will help you make sure your social profiles are sparkling clean!

Have you done any social media spring cleaning? What would you add to the list?

P.S. Come back for our next post where we’ll talk about spring cleaning for your blog and website! Subscribe via email or via RSS
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Image credit: Judy van der Velden